Why Cornerstone Park matters.
Cornerstone Park is a reclaimed park where Green Valley's suburban character meets the conversion of a former gravel quarry into one of Henderson's largest lake-centered public landscapes.
Set along Wigwam Parkway near Stephanie Street and just west of Arroyo Grande Boulevard, the park occupies 100 acres within the established residential and commercial grid of western Henderson. A broad body of water dominates the interior, with paths tracing its irregular shoreline through open lawns and planted margins. Boardwalk crossings carry portions of the circulation across marsh and drainage areas, giving the former extraction site a layered topography uncommon among the city's conventional neighborhood parks. Large undeveloped sections along the northern and eastern edges preserve visible space for the property's continuing expansion. The result is a substantial urban park whose lake, shoreline trails, wetlands and open terrain turn a former industrial excavation into a distinctive piece of Green Valley's public landscape.
What defines Cornerstone Park.
Cornerstone Park is best known for transforming a former gravel pit into a 100-acre public landscape organized around the water-filled excavation left by the site's industrial past. Henderson spent eight years planning the conversion as the surrounding city continued its rapid suburban expansion. The Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act supplied $16 million for the project, drawing on the federal program through which proceeds from public-land sales in Clark County funded conservation and recreation projects across Southern Nevada. Henderson selected APCO Construction for the work after a $10.6 million construction bid advanced in 2011. The engineering challenge extended beyond conventional park construction because several storm channels drained into the quarry lake, shaping both water quality and the final design. Early concepts included docks and fishing areas, but the drainage system required the water to remain outside recreational use. APCO's completed scope incorporated upstream conveyance systems, drainage improvements, a detention pond, water and sewer infrastructure, extensive earthwork and emergent marsh and riparian planting around the existing lake. Upper and lower boardwalk crossings threaded circulation through the new waterside landscape. A corporate plaza, pavilion structures, basketball courts, sand volleyball courts and an extensive trail system completed the first major construction phase. Cornerstone Park opened in 2013 as Henderson's second-largest park, converting a scarred extraction landscape into a major civic property whose industrial topography remained fundamental to its design.
The lake subsequently acquired a memorial connection with architect Merrill E. Kieffer, who worked on the project before his death in 2012. Henderson dedicated the natural lake in his memory, recognizing an architect whose municipal work had shaped multiple projects across the city. The park's long-term development continued through a second major investment cycle more than a decade after its opening. Henderson's 2026 capital program assigns $4.09 million to Cornerstone Park Phase II, advancing construction across previously underdeveloped northern and eastern land. Phase 2A introduces shaded gathering areas, swing benches and a fitness course, with later components planned around a dog park, playground, additional restrooms and parking, a small amphitheater and skate elements. Construction began in July 2026 with completion of the active phase scheduled for fall. A parallel landscape conversion replaces water-intensive fescue with drought-tolerant Bermuda grass and introduces sixteen additional trees. Henderson projects annual water savings exceeding 2.6 million gallons from that work. The new investment extends the original quarry-reclamation project into another generation, preserving the lake as the organizing feature as the surrounding acreage acquires additional recreational infrastructure.
How Cornerstone Park fits.
Cornerstone Park works as the anchor for a Green Valley outing connecting Southern Nevada's relocated architectural history, a confectionery enterprise founded by a member of the Mars family and an accidental desert wetland converted into protected bird habitat.
Begin at Clark County Museum, whose 30-acre grounds preserve historic buildings relocated from communities across Southern Nevada. The institution grew from the collection of Anna Roberts Parks, whose daughter sought a permanent home for the assemblage after Parks died in 1962. An early museum opened in Henderson in 1968 before the institution moved to its present Boulder Highway property. Heritage Street gathers restored houses representing successive periods of regional domestic life, and the outdoor collection includes the 1932 Boulder City Depot and a 1918 Union Pacific steam locomotive. Continue to Ethel M Chocolates Factory & Cactus Garden, created by Forrest Mars Sr. after his retirement from the corporation behind some of America's most familiar confectionery brands. Mars founded Ethel M in Henderson in 1981 and named the company for his mother, Ethel Mars. The adjoining three-acre botanical garden contains more than 300 plant species drawn from the American Southwest and other arid regions, turning desert horticulture into an integral component of the factory property. The garden began receiving visitors during the company's opening year and later became known for seasonal light installations across its cactus collection. Conclude at Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve, where wastewater evaporation ponds unexpectedly developed into habitat for migratory and resident birds. The National Audubon Society incorporated the site into its Christmas Bird Count in 1967, decades before Henderson formally adapted maintenance practices around nesting cycles. Collaboration among city utility officials, Red Rock Audubon Society and engineers led to approval of a dedicated preserve in 1997, groundbreaking in March 1998 and dedication that May. Nine ponds now spread across 140 acres, with thousands of migratory waterfowl moving through habitat created by municipal water reclamation. The progression moves from preserved buildings carrying Southern Nevada's architectural past through an industrial confectionery enterprise rooted in desert horticulture and culminates in municipal infrastructure converted into a significant habitat for migratory birds.
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